Batman vs Superman: What Follows?
by Torra Jhed
Summary: The Events in Gotham were only the beginning. We pick up after the funeral of Clark Kent in Smallville where his body was really taken. Let the world mourn an empty casket for Superman, Clark Kent belonged at home in Kansas. AU following the events in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
1. After the Funeral

_**Thump-thump**_

Lois stood by the empty gravesite, his ring on her finger as she held a handful of rich soil and let it fall. _'You can't stay here forever, Lane,'_ she mentally scolded herself. _'You have to be strong. Be the woman he loved. Walk.'_

The words had no meaning to her. She didn't want to be strong. She didn't want to turn away. She wanted to stay until she could be with him again. Bruce and Diana watched from a distance. Lois turned but she did not move away. Everything that meant something to her was lying in that hole and she hated the thought of leaving him.

' _Be strong, Lois,'_ she heard his voice in her own mind.

 _ **Thump-thump**_

"You should go to her," Diana said, her brow furrowed. "Help her take the first step."

"No," Bruce replied. "She has to do it for herself."

 _ **Thump-thump**_

Lois lifted her right foot and placed it down again; her left followed. The world was not ready for Superman. They didn't appreciate Kal-El of Krypton. Her knees buckled beneath her. God-damn it, they didn't even spare a thought for Clark Kent but she loved the man that was all three of them. The tears she'd been holding back came and she screamed in outrage at the injustice of it.

 _ **Thump-thump**_

Bruce moved swiftly to help Lois to her feet. She'd taken the first step herself. That was enough. He put his arm around her and helped her to stand.

 _ **Thump-thump**_

Diana jumped into the grave and pulled the lid from Clark Kent's coffin. The baby faced farm boy was lying there still with no visible signs of life about him. She lifted him in her arms carefully as she lept out of the grave and placed him carefully on the ground.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bruce shouted. "Stay here, Ms. Lane."

Lois scrambled to get next to Clark, to rest his head in her lap as she stroked his dark curls while silent tears streamed down her cheeks which she roughly pushed away with her soiled hand. For all the world, he looked exactly as he did when he slept next to her. The warmth of his skin was a welcome hallucination or perhaps it was the sun skewing her perceptions.

The sun should never shine on a day like this. It should rain and be gray and miserable as the feeling of losing someone so loved.

"He's not dead," Diana whispered to Bruce. "I could feel the vibration of his heartbeat. It is slow and weak, but he lives."

Bruce's brow was the one to furrow now. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I know the kid meant a lot to her but I don't want to offer her false hope. Not even I can be that cruel."

"I am certain of it," Diana replied. "He will recover given enough time and care but I am equally certain that he has a long road ahead of him. We should tell his mother."

Bruce took the long trek up to the Kent's farmhouse where Martha sat at her kitchen table looking at her family photo albums. The page was opened to a happy young couple standing in on the front porch of the house in their wedding clothes. She traced the lines of Jonathan's face with her finger.

"Take care of our boy, Jonathan," she said to the photograph. "Not sure when I'll be with you both again. I miss you."

Bruce knocked on the screen door. "Martha? May I come in?"

Martha wiped a few tears away with the dish towel she was holding and nodded. "It's not locked, Mister Wayne. Come in."

She flipped the page and smiled as he stepped in. He looked down to see a young Martha holding a little wrapped up baby looking up at her and her face fraught with worry.

"The night we found him," she explained. "He was having trouble breathing. The wheezing was so bad. Jonathan had to run out to the Walmart over in Evansville and beg the manager to let him in before they all went home to get one of those little suction bulbs and a humidifier. Of course, it was impossible to know what to do with him that would work and he was too weak to even cry. Just this wheeze as he struggled to… breathe… it about broke my heart."

"Martha…" he said, taking her hand in his. "Your son…"

"My son survived as a little baby. He lived to help people and he _died_ doing that," Martha said. "And do you think anyone gave a damn about…"

Bruce put his hand over her mouth. "He's not dead."

Her eyes grew large and her hands trembled as she knocked the chair over and raced out of the house. "Clark."

She saw Diana carrying her son's body toward the house as if he weighed nothing with Lois running to keep up with the taller woman's strides. Bruce opened the screen door as Diana brought him in and took him to his own bed. Clark's hand twitched.

Lois raced to open the curtains. "Sunlight, he needs as much sunlight as we can get him."

Diana started to unbutton his shirt and then stopped. "Mrs. Kent, you may not wish to see this. The wound was very bad."

"Miss, I have held this boy in my arms all his life," Martha said. "I have worn every bodily fluid a child can leave on a mother. However bad it is, if my son's still living; I will see it."

Diana pulled the shirt away and the gaping wound that had gone clear through his body was slowly closing in the back. The muscles and tissues that had been rent when he was impaled were open and raw but he was not bleeding as one might have expected he should. Martha took in a sharp breath before kissing Clark's forehead and holding his hand. He had to be in pain.

"Clark," Martha whispered into his ear, "It's mom. If you can hear me, you listen to me. You have to fight, Son. Fight to live, Honey."

A moan came from the young man which gave both his mother and his lover a swell of hope. Before anything could be discussed, Bruce was on the telephone arranging for medical equipment to be brought from Gotham City to Smallville. To Bruce, Clark looked so young; little more than a boy despite his thirty five years.

' _Maybe I'm just getting old,'_ he thought morosely. _'Or maybe those Kryptonians just mature slower than humans. I'm not exactly ready for the Shady Oaks Rest Home yet.'_

Meanwhile, Martha had brought the rocking chair from her bedroom and parked it next to the bed.

"We'll take turns," she told Lois.

* * *

Author's Note: This story is being done PURELY from the movie Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and I am doing my best not to include any comic material within. As always, I don't own any parts of DC, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or anything. This is just my brain going off the rails with a "after the movie" story.


	2. Reconciliation and Memories

It took a couple of hours before the equipment arrived while Clark did not move again. Full spectrum lamps fitted through a long trailer sat in front of the Kent farmhouse that would emulate the sun. At least that was the hope that would keep the young Kryptonian's healing going well since while the sun shone, he made slow but steady recovery but once the sun set, little seemed to be happening.

Lois rested next to him unable to take her eyes of the grotesque sight. She etched the injury on her mind as it began to close. She noticed his spine had been split in two. She held his hand while she drank in the scent of his natural musk. Clark didn't wear cologne. He had no need of it, in her opinion.

"I don't think we'll make that show you wanted to see," Lois whispered softly as she used her free hand to stroke his hair. "I wasn't sure you'd be up for any more forays into high-brow culture after the opera. I still don't know which of us dozed off more... I guess that sort of thing wasn't designed for farm boys and military brats, huh? But if you want to go to the theater, we'll get there. It'll just take a little longer than we expected."

Martha came up with a fresh load of laundry and looked into the room. "Your phone has been going off about every five minutes downstairs, Lois. That editor must really want to get a hold of you."

"Sorry about that. I thought I'd turned the damn thing off," Lois said. "I'm afraid that Perry will have to wait. I don't want to leave him just now. He's so vulnerable."

"I understand how you feel, Honey," Martha said. "I think they have that contraption just about ready and you won't be able to stay with him then."

His hand clasped around hers giving it the gentlest of squeezes for so strong a man.

They watched his lungs inflate within his chest while his face screwed up in pain. Lois squeezed his hand back before picking it up and kissing it.

"I know," Lois said, "but until then…"

Diana stood outside the door of the medical trailer as the panels were tested. Bruce had not removed the phone from his ear in hours and she was sure his battery was about to die in 3… 2… 1…

"Damn it," Bruce said scowling at his phone as he fumbled to find his replacement battery.

"Do you think this will work?" Diana asked him, setting a hand atop his to stop his continued reproachful scowl directed at a piece of electronic equipment.

"I don't know," Bruce replied, "but if there's a chance… any at all, we have to take it. It's better than waiting on nature to take its course since we can't provide any other medical means to help. If I had listened sooner… realized that I was being played, I could have stopped Luthor before this became as bad as it did."

"Or not," Diana countered. "Speculation is not truth."

"Just couldn't believe there could be good people around anymore that stayed that way," Bruce mused.

Martha stepped outside and waved to them. "Clark is starting to come to but he's in a lot of pain."

"I will bring him to the chamber now," Diana said. "With luck from the Gods, the boy will recover soon."

She then made her way inside and returned with Clark swiftly with Lois right next to him. Lois stopped as the Amazonian took Clark into the trailer and almost immediately the several thousand watts of artificial light shone on him.

"Strong woman," Martha observed. "Mister Wayne, I want to thank you for everything you've done for me and for my son."

"For what he did, nothing less could be considered," Bruce said as the technicians cleared the trailer.

"Clark is a good man but he's been struggling with this hero business. We raised him up best we could, took him to church on Sunday, taught him right from wrong," Martha said watching from outside the trailer as several thousand watts of light were shone on her son.

"How do you reconcile God with his existence?" Bruce asked.

"God made all things, Mister Wayne," Martha shrugged. "Of that I never had a doubt. Oh, it did take me some time to accept that the bible is only human's telling of God's story but I never doubted that He had a hand in my son's existence too."

"This place in the world seems more foreign to me than anywhere I've been in the world," Bruce mused. "Does nothing bad ever happen here?"

"Oh, there's bad all over, even here," Martha said. "Good people die and bad ones live. What you focus on is what you see. Nothing more complicated than that."

"Interesting," Bruce said, noticing the dark circles under her eyes and the paleness underneath the weathered skin. "I'll remember that, Martha. Thank you. You should try to get some rest. This has to have been hell for you."

Martha shook her head, "Everything has happened so fast. I'm sure that it will catch up to me eventually. Right now, every thought is for Clark."

"I'll come get you if his condition changes," Bruce promised.

Martha nodded and took Lois's arm and headed indoors. They were both exhausted. There was no doubt of that.

Diana waited until the two human women had gone back into the house and were well out of earshot before she asked, "The phone call, what is it that has you concerned?"

"Stagg Industries were seen on site but I don't know why," Bruce said. "They have their fingers in a lot of pies. They might have legitimate business there."

"But you do not think it was," she replied. "And the military were keeping it locked down. You have a suspicion?"

Bruce nodded. "He bled. I think in person inquiries may be needed. Besides, there's not much that we can do standing around here waiting to find out if the kid's healing up or not."

"He is," Diana assured him. "He may be conscious by morning enough so to get himself to a place of sufficient natural light."

"I'm sure that will be a relief. All that's left is to lose the death certificate," Bruce said.

"How do you plan to do that?" she inquired.

"I know people," he smiled with a shrug. "It will be reported that before an autopsy could be performed he woke up on the table out of a deep coma. Since no one saw his injuries that will say otherwise, there are no witnesses to the chest wound. A coma might be strange but not out of the realm of human possibilities. It might garner a small amount of interest but will fade quickly enough."

Underneath the intense light, Clark felt as if his entire body was on fire and he was hurting in a way he had never experienced in life. His mind drifted back over the years and his memories took him back to some happier times.

Fourth of July weekend when he was fifteen. A family picnic for the holiday. Jonathan and Martha had invited Martha's sister Joan's family along with a handful of others.

The sound of a rough engine coming up the road signalled the first arrival to the cookout. Clark had just gotten cleaned up after doing his chores. Holiday or no, work still needed to be seen to. Joan's daughter Marnie and her husband Robert drove their rumbling old Nova up the dirt road and parked as close to the house as they could. Heavily pregnant, Marnie waddled her way to the house as Martha came out to greet her.

"Honey, you look about ready to burst," Martha said with a chuckle giving her niece a hug. "You didn't have to come all this way in this condition."

"And miss the cookout and fireworks? Not a chance!" Marnie replied laughing.

"Marn!" Clark called out as he jumped down the last couple of steps from inside and rushed out.

"Oh my gosh, Clark! Look at you! I swear you've grown half a foot since Easter," his cousin said with a smile as she hugged him. "And getting so handsome too. Sorry, I don't hug very well these days. Bunny is taking up all the real estate at the moment."

"You're not really naming her that, are you?" he asked.

"What makes you think it's a girl?" Marnie replied.

"He's got a fifty-fifty chance of being right," Marnie's husband Robert added coming up behind them with a watermelon that he took into the kitchen. "No, we are not naming the baby that. We just haven't agreed on a girl's name yet."

"You're running out of time," Jonathan said with a grin. "You want me to give that engine a look?"

"Not on a holiday," Robert replied. "Whatever the case, we will not be naming our child 'Bunny'."

"Killjoy," Marnie laughed. "So, Clark, what's been going on with you? Got a girlfriend?"

"No," Clark replied as he blushed up to the tips of his ears. "Just working around here and stuff. Nothing special."

The baby's heartbeat fluttered. He heard it.

"I have it on very good authority that you've been spending a fair bit of time with one Miss Lana Lang," Marnie continued to tease him.

"We're just friends," Clark countered. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said giving him a look. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I was just thinking that the baby's supposed to come soon," he offered quickly. He couldn't tell her that he could hear her daughter's heartbeat going funny.

"It's fine, don't worry," Marnie shrugged.

"Hey, Clark, how about giving me a hand, huh?" Robert said and waited until the teenager joined him.

Clark looked into the trunk of the car. "That's a lot of grape pop."

"Your cousin can't seem to get enough of it these days. That and banana milkshakes," Robert told him with a shake of his head. "I'm not sure if we're having a baby or she's giving birth to the Great Grape Ape."

"The who?" Clark asked, puzzled.

"Sorry, Kid. I forgot you're a little too young to remember that cartoon," Robert said. "You going out for football this year? With your build…"

"Nah," Clark replied quickly. "The football players are a bunch of jerks and if that's what being on the team does to a person, I'd rather not."

"What about your academics?" Robert asked. It wasn't an unexpected question. Robert taught at the junior high so of course he'd be concerned.

"Straight A's all year."

"Good job. Keep it up and you could get a full ride scholarship for college," he advised.

"Dad wants me to take over more of the farming work after graduation," Clark said, slightly deflated.

"What do you want, Clark?" Robert inquired. "Even if you want to farm, you could still go to college for agricultural studies. There are new methods of farming to learn, not just what's going on here. Besides, ultimately it's your life to lead so you should be happy with your choice and college can help open a whole world of opportunities."

The memory faded away with those words from Robert and the intense pain brought him vaguely aware of his surroundings before he drifted back again.

'Take a deep breath and it'll be over quick.' Clark's memories replayed something he'd told Marnie's daughter about a flu vaccination when she was small.

'I no want it!' was the then two years old's unhappy reply to him. With tiny arms crossed, she declared emphatically. 'This stinks, Uncle Clark!'

All he could think through his agony was 'Yes, Beth. This definitely stinks.'

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I did bring in a few things and wanted to expand on the idea that the Kents do have extended family and his youth couldn't have been all misery and being picked on. Also, since MoS made it pretty obvious that Jonathan was trying to keep Clark secluded in an attempt to protect him, there needed to be someone to offer him the idea that it was okay to go out into the world.


	3. Healing and New Problems

The morning sun brought with it an accelerated healing and Clark was soon awake, though still in tremendous pain for a time. Pain was still a relatively new sensation for the kryptonian. Bruce and Diana were working in one of the trucks and Lois had only just briefly gone inside to get coffee when the phone rang. Martha sat by him in the grass as he absorbed the sun's radiation, bringing him back to wellness although his legs still were not functioning properly.

"Mom," Clark finally said. "I dreamed about Beth back when she was little. I wasn't able to get back to see her on her birthday. How's she been doing?"

"Well, her favorite person in the whole world died less than a year after her parents did," Martha shrugged. "I think she's handling it as well as can be expected for a young woman her age."

"So not well at all," he surmised.

"She did her best trying to be brave for me and Lois; to not show her own hurt but it was there. Could always see it in her eyes when she was in pain and trying to be brave. I think she's working her hardest to do what she thinks she should be for everyone else but herself. She came for the funeral despite one of her professors saying he would not excuse her time off. I told her she didn't have to risk her whole semester but you know how she is," Martha shook her head.

Clark snorted, "Yeah, I do. Why didn't we help Marnie teach her to mind better again?"

"Maybe because before the logos on lunchboxes and t-shirts, you were already her hero to emulate," his mother answered gently. "When the President ordered a day of mourning for Superman, she got one day anyway. Caught the overnight bus from Kansas State to get here for you. Then said she had to catch the very next bus back. I didn't think anything of it at first…"

"You think she didn't?" Clark guessed.

"I think she got her dad's motorcycle out of storage and took it back," Martha said with a shake of her head.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Clark asked, sitting up but not getting very far. He still could not feel his legs.

"There's not much I could do," Martha sighed. "She is independent and always trying to shoulder more burdens than were hers to take on, exactly like someone else I know. As I said, Son, before you were anyone else's hero, you were hers."

Lois stepped out into the yard. "That was Beth's roommate on the phone. She never arrived back at their dormitory or to any classes and she's not answering her cell or any texts."

Clark struggled to move, "I will find her."

"Honey, you're in no condition to go anywhere," Lois told him. "I'll ask for their help."

She nodded toward the truck.

"No, she's my family, not theirs," Clark said. "Useful against apocalyptic foes is one thing; finding a wayward teenager is another."

Bruce cleared his throat. "I've had my fair share of looking for those too. You're not a well man yet, Clark Kent, and there is a great deal going on that we'll need your help with. So let us help one another."

"Let's start with satellite imagery," Diana answered. "If there was an accident on the highway we would be able to see something."

"Meanwhile, we can access the school's security cameras and look to see if she is seen on any of those," Bruce added.

"How?" Lois asked. "You've never even met her."

Bruce smirked, "Shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes, stands about five-five give or take. I saw her. In the meanwhile, you should worry more about yourself. You _did_ just awake from a fatal injury."

"A slight setback," Clark retorted. "A few more hours and things should be good as new."

Martha put her arm around his shoulders. "Don't get cocky, Son."

Diana, meanwhile, moved to the truck and began accessing Wayne Enterprise satellites that were geosynchronous over the midwest of the United States. There were no accidents of note between Smallville and Manhattan in Kansas and no reports of any either. That was a good start, at least.

Or so Diana thought until she got into the Kansas State security cameras that focused on the parking lots first where she saw a motorcycle pulling into an open spot and the figure of a young woman dismounting. She had not gone but a few feet when a black van pulled up and several men in ski masks gave chase behind her. She swung the helmet in her hands, clocking one of her assailants in the head hard enough to knock him out and employing several kicks and punches. In the end, however, the small young woman was vastly outnumbered and outmuscled against her attackers and it appeared they used some manner of sedating agent to carry her back to the van.

She switched to other cameras to track the van's route which ended as soon as they left the university property.

"Well, this is certainly a complication," Diana said to herself as she did her best to find additional satellite imagery or traffic cameras from the same time period but the middle of Kansas didn't have the same saturation as large cities.

"Oh my god," Lois said from the doorway. "Just what wasn't needed at the moment."

"What is it, Lo?" Clark called as he was desperately attempting to get on his feet. He couldn't figure out why his legs were taking so long to heal but it would not stop him from helping his niece.

"Looks like you're going to need wheels for a bit, Kent," Bruce said procuring a wheelchair from the truck. "At least for a few more hours."

"I'll manage," Clark grimaced as he pulled himself up with the help of the nearby tree that held the swing his father had put up when Clark was still very small. Bruce pushed the wheelchair behind him and placed a strong arm underneath Clark's arms.

"Don't be so stubborn, Kid. We need to help each other, just like before," Bruce commented as he knelt next to the wheelchair to meet Clark eye to eye, as equals. "You said it best. Luthor manipulated both of us and in that turned us into a pair of loggerheads. Let's get past it and learn to work together to keep anything like that from happening again."

Clark nodded as he wheeled himself to the truck as Diana emerged. "Do you know where she is?"

"It appears the victim…" Diana began.

"Don't call her that," Clark snapped. "She's not going to be anyone's victim."

"Honey, they're trying to help," Lois said gently.

"Sorry, the girl in the video stream," Diana corrected herself, "fought well but badly outnumbered. She was taken to a private airstrip and the plane that was used employed stealth technology once it took off."

"There's no reason for anyone to kidnap Beth," Martha said. "Her inheritance wasn't that large. Enough to pay for her schooling and give her a little start in life."

"If that's the reason, we'll hear soon enough," Bruce mused. "You'll receive a ransom request but we have to consider that was not the reason she was taken as well."

Lois cocked an eyebrow, "You think they took her because of Clark? What good would it do? No one knows he's alive. That wouldn't make any sense."

"There's a family resemblance, even if it's by coincidence," Diana said. "And the age difference is just enough for plausibility… barely."

Martha looked disgusted. "Have people nothing better to do with their time than make grotesque speculations? Aside from blue eyes and dark hair, there's no resemblance between the two. Besides, Clark was only fifteen when she was born and Marnie was almost thirty."

"Whatever the reason, how do we find her if their aircraft had stealth technologies and no visual from her being taken out of Kansas?" Lois asked as her cellphone went off. "It's Perry. I've been dodging his calls since last night."

"Take it, Lo," Clark said as he attempted to filter out any sounds but that of his niece but she was either too far to get a location or he wasn't as healed as he'd hoped. "I can't hear her."

"There is a lot we have to do when you are well enough," Diana offered as Lois moved away to take her boss' call. "Perhaps if we find the others, they will be able to help as well."

"Other who now?" Clark questioned the exotic woman.

"Are you familiar with the metahuman theory?" she asked.

Clark shook his head. "No, not in the least. What is it?"

"There are others with abilities, like myself, who are beyond the human norms," Diana explained to him. "A man who is as fast as the lightning strikes, one who lives within the depths of the oceans, another who is part-man and part machine… these people can help us protect the Earth against those who would cause harm both from without and within. Together as a team."

"And this helps find Beth how?" Clark queried with a raised eyebrow as Lois came back. "Perry wanting you back to work?"

"Someone asked for me. I told Perry to tell them I wasn't doing any location work for a while," Lois told him with a smile as she took Clark's hand. "I have something much more important to do right now."

Clark brought her hand to his lips with a small laugh. "That may be tomorrow's headline: 'Lois Lane Refuses Story Chase'."

"I need to return to Gotham," Bruce said. "There are a few inquiries I need to make there that can't be done any other way. We'll start looking for any anomalies in flight plans overnight. We'll find your niece. Martha, I want to put a trace on your phone so should anyone call about your niece, it will give us a location."

She nodded her consent as she patted her son's shoulder. She knew that this would be hardest on him to not be able to sweep in and save the day just yet.

"We are being pulled in many directions at once," Diana said to Bruce as she walked him to his car. "Which way is best to go first?"

"We gather the others as quickly as possible and then find the girl before anything else happens and get that off our plate," Bruce decided with an authoritative presence. "I have a feeling we're going to be very busy in the near future."

* * *

 **Author's Note: I think you have all noticed that this is AU and such by now but I'm saying it anyways. Also, I don't own the DC characters. I'm just playing in their sandbox with their toys. I'll try not to screw it up too badly. Been having very little time of late to write with house hunting but hoping to get more done ASAP.**


	4. Gathering Resources

**Author's Note** : Generally I put disclaimers at the bottom but for this, I thought it better to be up front with it as I lifted most of Barry and Bruce's dialog from the awesome trailer that was presented at SDCC a couple weeks back. I hope I improved enough on the scene surrounding it that it doesn't come off as a cheap rip off but I thought the dialog for them was just perfect and gave us an incredible intro to Barry to start with. Hope to have more good stuff up soon.

* * *

Barry had only slipped out to grab some donuts and coffee for a long night working on his costume. Normally, it would have been a quick trip but the Stop 'n Shop had a line. He flipped the lights on and was surprised to see someone in his 'lair'.

"Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne," Bruce introduced himself.

"You said that like it explains why there's a total stranger sitting in the dark in my second favorite chair," Barry said looking confused at the intruder.

"I am in search of people who can do extraordinary things," Bruce began.

"Look, Man, I don't know who you are, but whoever you're looking for…," Barry interrupted but stopped when the man threw something at him. Time, as it always did in these situations, slowed down for him and he watched as the projectile gradually rotated its way towards him and he couldn't believe his eyes. ' _Holy crap, it's Gotham's Batman!'_

Barry easily plucked the weapon out of midair.

"So you're fast," Bruce said as the kid snagged the 'rang out of midair without seeming to move.

Barry half shrugged, "That feels like an oversimplification. So what do you want?"

"I'm putting together a team, people with special abilities. See, I believe enemies are coming," Bruce started but the kid didn't give him a chance to finish.

"Stop right there, I'm in," Barry replied excitedly.

' _Is this kid serious?'_ Bruce thought as he stepped forward. "You are? Just like that?"

"Yeah, I need… friends."

"Great," Bruce said with a half chuckle. He was getting the feeling that most of this team were young enough to need babysitters. Young meant they could be trained though. They would learn to work together to avoid a situation like he and Clark had gone through.

"Can I keep this?" Barry asked holding up the batarang.

"Sure," Bruce replied. "I'm working on a facility in the bay between Gotham and Metropolis. The team will need a base of operations that everyone has access to. There's a lot happening that we need to work on. Anything holding you here?"

"Not really," Barry said. "Besides, I can get back in half an hour tops if I'm needed at home."

"Grab your stuff, I have a lot to fill you in on," Bruce told him. "We'll talk in the car."

* * *

Diana had been driving around some of the more… interesting parts of town looking for the young man whose mechanical appearance often caused alarm. He kept to the shadows, walking in an effort not to be seen. He slipped out of a movie theater and headed toward a nearby alleyway. She pulled the car in front of him.

"Victor Stone," she declared easily as she stepped out.

He gave her an appreciative look up and down. "Yeah, but whatever you're selling, I'm not in a mood to buy."

"This isn't a sales pitch," Diana told him. "This is a genuine offer to join a team of warriors against a greater evil."

"Why would that interest me?" he asked

"Because a lesser evil already had a dossier prepared on you. It is no great leap that others might attempt to sway you to less noble causes," she said. "If not force you."

"Lady, no one forces me to do anything," Victor snorted. "Lesser evil or greater. It's nothing to me."

"If you are not interested in joining an alliance that will fight against those who would oppress the earth's people and do away with the ones who might challenge them, I will not bother you further," she said, turning to get back into the car.

"Wait," Victor said reaching out and grabbing her arm. "Something happening I should know about?"

"Perhaps, if you do not wish to be subjugated by outside forces of the Earth," Diana replied. "If you wish to hear about it, remove your hand from my arm and we can talk. Or..."

She freed her arm from his significant grasp and with a gentle touch of her bracers, the force pushed him back until he bumped the building across the street. "I will remove it for you."

Victor looked surprised by the force that was exerted from so slight a tap. "You… you're that broad that was with Superman and Batman fighting that monster."

"I am, yes," she replied. "If you wish to hear more, get in the car and we will go for a drive. I will not hurt you unless you give me reason."

"Yeah, I'm down with hearing what you have to say," Victor nodded as he hurried over to the passenger's side and got in. "Must be important for you to come all the way here to hunt me up."

"It is. Extremely important," Diana said as she got behind the wheel and began to drive. "Things will never be the same."

* * *

Clark sat on the front porch of his mother's house in the wheelchair he'd been left with. He looked up at the vast Kansas sky, realizing that he'd missed the simple pleasure of seeing the openness of it and the brilliance of the stars overhead which were dulled by light pollution in the city. Lois stepped out and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"I failed, Lo'," Clark sighed. "I should have done more to protect you all."

"You didn't fail, Clark," Lois replied squeezing his shoulder. "Luthor is crafty, evil and intelligent. That's a dangerous combination to deal with."

"I can't keep letting people figure it out. First you and mom… now Beth who's probably scared senseless and doesn't even know why," Clark said, still looking at the stars, "And I can't even stand on my own two feet to do anything for her."

"Your injuries were extreme to say the least," Lois admonished gently. "Even Superman needs to slow down and heal."

"Superman needs to stay dead," he mused. "I thought I had to prove that I was important to the people of Earth but in all that, I wasn't very good at taking care of the ones that needed it most."

Lois knelt down next to him. "Honey, listen to me. You're powerful but you're not omnipotent. It's as much my fault that things progressed this way. The general was right. I got greedy for a story and it got people killed because I played right into Luthor's hands to put you in the position of being my personal savior. That probably exposed your identity more than anything but we can't know what Luthor knew and when. Let's split the blame on this one and move forward, hmm? Bruce and Diana are looking for Beth and it's not going to be long before she's home safe and sound. Besides, this isn't the time to make huge decisions."

He smiled thinly. "You're right. Self pity isn't going to get anything done just now. I don't suppose that there was anything interesting in her personal belongings from her dorm, was there?"

"Nothing that would help locate her and even less that her uncle needs to know about," Lois said as she stood and headed into the house.

Clark started wheeling in behind her. "Wait. What do you mean even less that I need to know about? What's she been up to? Lo'... what did you find?"

* * *

"Time is twenty-two fifty. Subject is human female, age currently undetermined. It has been approximately twelve minutes since primary introduction of S-16. Following convulsion, subject is agitated and hostile. Elevated heart rate and temperature. Height and weight has decreased by approximately twenty five percent. No signs of advancement," a detached scientist's voice recorded his observations as he watched the girl in an enclosed room as she struggled uselessly against metal cuffs that were keeping her tethered to a lab table while he listened through the monitor.

"Let me out of here, you miserable limp dicked piece of shit mother fu…" she shouted angrily before he turned the speakers off.

"Subject is extremely hostile. Second introduction of S-16 commencing in 3… 2… 1…"

She began convulsing again on the table as another dose of alien blood coursed through her veins and she completely blacked out.


	5. Ships Ahoy

Clark pulled himself up onto a pair of crutches with little difficulty. His upper body strength was back to normal and he could fool almost anyone to thinking that he was actually feeling his legs again. Anyone except his mother or Lois, that was.

"Don't try to buffalo me, Son," Martha said. "All the lift from those arms isn't making those feet move any more."

Clark sat himself back down in the chair. "I know, Mom. I'm not sure why everything else seems to be back in working order. I can even fly without a problem. Maybe I'm just not going to."

"Clark, maybe they aren't and that's going to be a big change for you but I don't think that's going to be a problem in the city," Martha told him.

"But what about the farm? I'm not in much condition to help out," he asked.

"I'll figure something out,, maybe talk to the Johnsons, see if they want to rent some of the acreage in the spring," Martha shrugged. "Not something for you to worry about. Time for you to get back to your own life, Son."

Clark looked over at the Christmas tree that was still set up and wouldn't come down until January 2nd as was their tradition. The gifts had all been opened, save for the few that had been bought for their missing niece. In the six weeks since her disappearance, hope was starting to fade and his heart ached knowing that he had no idea what was happening to her.

Lois came in with the mail. She had been flying to and from Kansas every weekend but this time Clark would be going back with her. She handed the letters over to Martha before pulling off her coat and gloves.

"I hope we aren't delayed for the flight tomorrow," she said casually as she rested a hand on Clark's shoulder. "What are you going to do with having your house all to yourself again?"

Martha smiled. "Oh, I was thinking of getting a pool table. I could hustle the neighbors for quarters."

"Mom," Clark laughed at the absurdity of his mother becoming a pool shark when his phone rang. "It's Mister Wayne. Bruce? Yeah, we're all here…

* * *

Some hours earlier, Bruce sat at the computer terminal in the control room of the Flying Fox as it rested on Striker Island in stealth mode while they did scans of the facilities hidden beneath the barren rocky mass sitting between Metropolis and Gotham. It was once a military installation, long abandoned since the second world war.

"It appears to be secure enough. How did you manage to secure rights to the island?" Diana asked as she looked over the images.

Bruce shrugged with a half grin. "I called in a favor."

He was still disappointed that his meeting with Arthur Curry hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped it would but he had a gut feeling that the man was not as disinterested as he protested. Otherwise he would not be routinely taking food to a small village that was often cut off from the rest of civilization during winter. Still, they had the two young men, and that was helpful. Quiet, reserved Victor and eager, enthusiastic Barry were as different as night and day but they seemed to be getting on surprisingly well even if Victor did occasionally look exasperated.

Bruce gazed over at the photograph they had gotten from Martha of the girl with her parents just before they died. Barry had speedily eliminated any possibility that the girl was in any of Stagg's research facilities and proved himself an adept hacker at getting into the mainframe undetected to find a list of off-the-books facilities, including a ship called Poseidon's Crown .

A news crawler came across the bottom of his screen that read: Research Vessel Explodes Off Coast of Maine. He switched over to GNN which had an accompanying video that showed a relatively small ship on fire. Satellite video showed a harsh red beam of light erupting from the ship shortly before it exploded.

"That doesn't seem like a coincidence. Think we've got trouble brewing?" Bruce asked Diana as she nodded.

"Let us hope it is not another Doomsday," she said.

"Just the thing we don't need," Bruce agreed. "Let's go have a gander."

Bruce moved to the helm and fired up the engine, causing the Fox to hum into life which brought the two younger men up to the control room.

"We're headed to a ship that exploded off the coast of Maine," Bruce told them before they asked.

"Why? Can't the Coast Guard handle it?" Victor asked. "I'm not going to be much use in the water."

"It's just a hunch and with luck we won't have to do anything," Bruce said.

"But we should be prepared in case we do," Diana added as the Fox moved swiftly to an acceptable altitude and clear flight path to get to the site of the ship swiftly.

It took less than thirty minutes to reach their destination in the Flying Fox and the ship was being doused with water hoses from nearby ships as the survivors were being rescued from their lifeboats. Diana began to scan the ship and suddenly tapped the monitor.

"There is the heat signature of someone on board," she said, "On the lowest level above the engines. They appear to be trapped."

Barry appeared in his blazing red costume in the blink of an eye. "Let me go. I can be in and out faster than anyone will know what happened."

"You're not fireproof, Barry," Bruce admonished.

"No but I'm faster than the flames can touch me," he replied.

"Let him try," Diana nodded. "Or that person will die while we sit here and debate."

Barry made his way to the stairs that would get him as close to the deck of the other ship as possible. As soon as he was in a good location to jump, he sped his way onto the deck and began his search through the ship for the person who had not gotten out. He came to a sudden stop as he reached a cleanroom with four clear walls that he found the young woman whose picture Bruce had been obsessing over though he never said anything about it. She looked a lot skinnier and sick, not to mention scared and her hands were bloody from trying to beat her way through the walls.

"Hey, don't worry. I'm going to get you out of here," Barry said. "Let me just figure out where the lock is. Don't suppose you know?"

"I can't hear you," she said as she shook her head but no sound was getting through as water was steadily filling the room.

"Crap," Barry said as he moved to the control panel and flipped knobs and controls at random. He managed to turn off the lights, start the sprinklers and then the entire panel shorted out. "Maybe I can just run through it…"

The water was already waist deep and he was having trouble gaining traction and he didn't have much room to gain speed, even from outside of the doorway.

"I'm going to find something to break through with," he tried to tell her as he left in search of a beam or fire extinguisher.

Beth couldn't hear him and when he left, she placed her hand on the clear perspex . The water still hadn't penetrated her sealed prison and it was getting very deep out there. She supposed she would suffocate before she drowned and she finally let a few tears fall as she believed she was facing her own death. She wondered if her great-aunt would ever know what happened to her or if she was forever going to be missing in the eyes of the world.

Barry found a length of pipe and he was just about to head out when a strong arm grabbed hold of him. He turned to see a large wild man looking down at him. "You must go. This ship is dead. There is nothing worth dying over."

"The girl stuck in that room would disagree," Barry said, now floating in the rising water.

Arthur Curry was not what anyone would call a people person. He preferred his solitude but he did have a penchant for helping the helpless when needed.

He went in and saw the young woman whose face read of entirely lost hope and he motioned for her to move away as he reared back with his trident and shattered the wall of the would be tomb. The water rushed in on Beth who hadn't the strength to fight the sudden current and Arthur reached in and took her hand to help her push against the water. She took a breath before the water covered her head but managed to get out by holding tightly onto the hand of the wild man with the odd looking eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked as she was finally free.

"We're friends here to rescue you," Barry said. "I'm Barry and he's… well, really big and strong."

"Talk later," Arthur said pushing ahead. He held onto the girl as she was having trouble and was obviously unwell. "Leave now."

He moved the two young people to the deck of the sinking ship and got them to the stairs of the hovering ship. The girl began to have trouble as they got outside and he jumped the distance with her as the young man in red followed speedily.

Bruce remained at the top of the stairs and seeing Arthur Curry didn't exactly surprise him but the woman he carried did.

"Jesus," he whispered as she struggled to get a breath.

She was in pulmonary distress and he led the way quickly to the infirmary where they placed an oxygen mask over her face which didn't seem to be helping her much.

"What is going on?" Arthur asked. "Who is this woman?"

Barry was already changed out of his costume and dried off as he entered the infirmary. "I dunno but she's definitely having trouble. I'm going to set her up with some saline."

"I need to call her uncle," Bruce said. "Barry, help her get dried off but don't get handsy. Her uncle will not appreciate that."

"Maybe it would be better if Miss Prince helped her with that. She's hot and I wouldn't want to..." Barry asked as he grabbed a dry towel. "Wait, who's her uncle?"

"Superman," Bruce replied as he hit the quick dial on his cellphone. "Clark, are you with the family? We have found Beth."

* * *

 **Author's Note: One problem down, a bunch more to go. I definitely have reasons why certain things are happening (or not happening) yet. Hope you enjoyed this latest chapter. Please leave a comment if you did. Thanks much for reading.**


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